One of the most disheartening aspects of the war against Jihad is the parade of self-defeating and truly idiotic policies that Western nations have concocted while our heroic warriors and first responders attempt to defeat our enemies and defend us against their attacks.

Here we have a prime example.

A 37-year old German national who fought for the Taliban in Afghanistan from 2013 until February of this year, when he was captured by US and German special forces, has been convicted by a German court for being a member of a terrorist organization.

So far so good, but it gets bad from here.

First of all, the Jihadi was sentenced to…6 years in prison. SIX YEARS IN PRISON. He fought for the Taliban for 5 years, yet he only gets a 6 year prison sentence…

Here are some of his activities while he was in Afghanistan for 5 years:

prosecutors said he prepared explosives, got ready for a suicide attack and worked on a propaganda video aimed at German radicals. He also allegedly had himself filmed participating in a failed mortar attack on an Afghan army base

For this he gets 6 years in prison.

And here’s another outrage:

The terrorist has only been identified as “Thomas K.”

Why?

German privacy laws forbid his full name being disclosed.

GOOD GRIEF.

In 6 years (or possibly even sooner) “Thomas K” will be released from prison and no one outside of German intelligence and criminal justice will have any idea who he is.

Finally, note also that Thomas K has resorted to what recently has become the favored deflection for Jihadis who have been captured. He’s pulling the “Crazy Card,” claiming he was schizophrenic and depressed…

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued a dozen identically worded advisories for European nations.

The nations for which the advisory was issued are Poland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, and France.

The advisory text reads:

“May be increased security in place over Christmas & New Year period, including at Christmas markets & other major events that might attract large crowds; remain vigilant & follow advice of local authorities”

It’s worth mentioning that there is no reference whatsoever to what has caused this advisory to be issued. The answer of course is Islamic jihad. Acts of violent jihad, particularly individual acts of violent jihad, have become part of the European landscape over the past decade.

In addition to car bombings and firefights, there are vehicle rammings, seemingly random acts of knife jihad, sexual assaults by roving gangs and acid attacks.

This violence has escalated with the onslaught of so-called “migrants” into Europe from Islamic-dominated regions of the world, notably, southwest Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

As a result, a new aspect of Christmas has appeared. To go along with peace on earth and goodwill toward men, in Europe we now have barricades surrounding Christmas celebrations, heavily armed soldiers in full kit always close to Santa and Nativity scenes and the occasional attack.

There is something that was left out of the UK Foreign Office advisory:

There was no mention of the UK of course, which is understandable because the Foreign Office only handles foreign affairs, not domestic policy.

On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the United Kingdom is under the same intense threat from jihad as the 12 European nations mentioned in its dispatches. But who is issuing advisories for travelers to the UK?

From the Quranic Concept of War. A landmark jihadi book written 40 years ago in Pakistan and still widely regarded as important by Jihadi leaders to this day:

“Let us now make an attempt to study the Quranic concept of strategy. The first step to this study is to understand the difference between total strategy, that is Jehad(sic), and military strategy. The term Jehad, so often confused with military strategy, is, in fact, the near-equivalent of total or grand strategy or policy-in-execution. Jehad entails the comprehensive direction and application of “power” while military strategy deals only with the preparation for and application of “force”. Jehad is a continuous and never-ending struggle waged on all fronts including political, economic, social, psychological, domestic, moral and spiritual to attain the object of policy. It aims at attaining the overall mission assigned to the Islamic State, and military strategy is one of the means available to it to do so. It is waged at individual as well as collective level; and at internal as well as external front.”

Page 54

Note that Jihad is an all-encompassing concept of conflict. It includes all facets of society and culture. This reflects the fact that Islamic doctrine recognizes that Islam is not a religion in the same sense as other forms of religion. Islam, according to its own doctrine, is a complete civilization, a complete way of life, that covers religious, personal, social, cultural, legal, military and political aspects.

This is one reason why shariah is completely different from all other forms of religious law on earth. Shariah covers all aspects of life. It is NOT just a set of rules for pious Muslims to follow in their religious life or when worshipping.

Moreover, shariah is the only form of religious law on earth that specifically is meant to apply to people of OTHER faiths. Canon law applies to Christians. Rabbinical law applies to Jews. Shariah applies to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

This story should be the biggest news story of the day, but, other than Fox News, the TV networks are either ignoring it or purposely omitting key facts in their reporting.

Late last week, a bold sheriff in Alamia, New Mexico, decided not to wait on the FBI to get out of its own way when he raided a compound in his jurisdiction, uncovering an Islamic terrorist training facility and human trafficking ring all rolled up into one…

The FBI was monitoring the site for two months but never searched it because they did not have an arrest warrant, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said on Monday.

On Friday, however, the sheriff’s office intercepted a message that was written either by one of the children or by one of their mothers which read: ‘We are starving and we need food and water.’

Authorities will not say how the message was delivered or who gave it to them but Sheriff Hogrefe said it meant he could not wait any longer for federal authorities to move in on the site.

How long the FBI would have waited to move on the compound is anyone’s guess, but it’s a good thing that Sheriff Hogrefe decided to move when he did.

It turns out that the compound was being used to hold women and children against their will in horrible conditions and it was also allegedly being used to train Muslim children to conduct jihadi attacks on schools here in America.

But here’s the really important part: the mastermind of this facility was none other than 39 year old Siraj Ibn Wahhaj.

“Who he?,” you ask?

He is the son of Brooklyn, New York Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a man with a checkered past, but also one that has been coddled by US politicians for years, despite his clear ties to bad actors.

The elder Wahajj has been quick to distance himself from his son, releasing a statement through his “Muslim Alliance of North America” (MANA):

MANA STATEMENT ON THE ARREST OF SIRAJ IBN WAHHAJ

Today news stories have surfaced reporting the arrest in New Mexico of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj – son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, our beloved imam. The same stories cite the finding of several other adults and children, reportedly living in squalid conditions in what has been described as a “ramshackle bunker”, made from a partially buried house trailer.

Last December, Georgia police authorities issued an alert for a missing child, identified as three-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, a grandson of Imam Siraj. The little boy was described as suffering from a medical condition from birth, requiring medication to prevent emergency treatment. In conversation with fellow officials of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), imam Siraj verified this, and expressed his further concern for the physical, psychological and spiritual well-being of some of his other family members – including his son Siraj Ibn Wahhaj (the boy’s father).

Law enforcement authorities stated at that time, that no criminal charges were pending against the child’s father. Their concern was the well-being of Abdul-Ghani’s health. Today however they stated that the child is still missing, and his father has been charged with abduction.

We at MANA have no greater details at this time . Considering a police force claim that several guns were found at the scene of the arrest of Ibn Wahhaj and another man, Lucas Morten, we are grateful to Allah that no violence occurred. We credit the arresting officers for their professionalism in a sensitive operation, even as we continue to pray for Abdul-Ghani and all of the members of the Wahhaj family. We encourage all people of good will to do the same.

This statement might be somewhat believable but for Imam Wahhaj’s past, about which much has been documented. That past makes this whole New Mexico facility and affair very suspicious indeed. Here’s a brief rundown of Imam Siraj Wahhaj’s past:

• Wahhaj was born a Baptist but converted to Islam while in college.

• He started as a member of Louis “Calypso Louie” Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam sect.

• Wahhaj became a Nation of Islam minister and preached a black separatist ideology that termed all white people as devils.

• Evidently, the Nation of Islam wasn’t what Wahhaj was really looking for because he left Nation of Islam and became a “mainstream” Sunni Muslim and, in 1978, traveled to Saudi Arabia to study Islam and especially Shariah. By 1981 he had returned to America and opened his first mosque. It was as Imam of his mosque that Wahhaj repeatedly invited Omar Abdel-Rahman (the Blind Sheik) to speak and fundraise.

Abdel-Rahman was a notorious terrorist who eventually died in prison.

Wahhaj had completely snowed the US government over the years and in 1991 became the first Imam to deliver the invocation at the US House of Representatives.

Wahhaj’s close ties to Jihad and Jihadists first became most clear when he was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing:

In 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named Wahhaj as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Soon thereafter, Wahhaj stated during one of his Al-Taqwa sermons, “I’m not frightened by no list, by no government! I thank Allah. I’m honored that they thought enough of me to put me on a list.”

Since that designation, Wahhaj’s extensive ties to known Jihadists and Jihadi organizations have been revealed, as detailed by Discover The Networks:

Predictably, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected in Turkey in the latest demonstration of his seizure of absolute power there.

What was once a largely secular nation is now careening toward and Islamic State to fulfill Erdogan’s dream of re-establishing the Ottoman Empire, the last widely recognized Islamic caliphate, which was shut down nearly a century ago.

Erdogan’s behavior is obviously very troubling to the West in general and NATO in particular.

• He has cozied up to the Ayatollahs in Tehran and maintained their “right” to enrich uranium.

• He has become increasingly close to Putin’s Russia, including buying advanced surface to air missile systems from the Russians, despite Turkey’s membership in NATO. Worse yet, Turkey is now procuring American F-35 strike fighters, raising the specter that Erdogan could share its advanced technology with the Russians, whose aviation industry is at least a generation behind America’s.

• Erdogan has supported the Jihadist terrorist organization HAMAS and has become increasingly hostile toward Israel. He recently called for an international Muslim military force to defend Gaza from Israel.

• Erdogan has become a major supporter of the global Muslim Brotherhood and has closely allied with Qatar, a nation that has been revealed as a major supporter of Jihadist terrorism and Islamist ideology.

What many observers are now seeing is that Turkey is becoming the major global sponsor of Jihad as the new Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia curtails that country’s activity along those lines. Michael Rubin explains in today’s Washington Examiner:

In addition to the Ayatollahs and Vladimir Putin, we can judge Erdogan by those who support him:

Prominent leaders and personalities from around the world on Monday continued to praise President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following his historic election win on Sunday.

Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party said the Turkish election results indicate “Turkish nation’s trust for AK Party and its alliances, and support for Erdogan and his party’s policies.” [NOTE: Sudan is an officially designated state sponsor of terrorism and its ruling regime is guilty of genocide.]

The leader of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Abdurrahman Mustafa also congratulated the president over his election victory [NOTE: Erdogan has supported Jihadist organizations in Syria, not out of ignorance, but precisely because he knows who and what they are.]

In a Twitter message, the chairman of Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars, Yousef al-Qaradawi, congratulated Erdogan and the Turkish nation “for their success in the democracy wedding”. [NOTE: Qaradawi is the ideological mentor of the Muslim Brotherhood and has been banned from traveling to the US, the UK and France due to his “extremism.” For more on Qaradawi, visit this link: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/2012/03/26/sheikh-yusuf-al-qaradawi-banned-from-france/

Against this backdrop, it is certainly very interesting that certain American Muslim leaders have chimed in in praise of Erdogan’s sham re-election…

The head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, congratulated the Turkish nation for the successful election, saying that a high voter turnout marked the polls.

Oussama Jamal, the secretary-general of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, said the Turkish elections were held in democratic maturity and sent a message to the world.

The executive director of the Chicago-based charity Zakat Foundation, Halil Demir also said President Erdogan proved that he was not the president of his ruling AK Party, but the entire country.

Now that the Islamic State caliphate has been crippled in Iraq and Syria, Jihadis loyal to the Islamic State are cropping up elsewhere in the world.

There has been fairly extensive coverage of the Islamic State’s activities in the Philippines.

Now comes the news that the Islamic State is rearing its ugly head in Kashmir, aimed India…

“Sharia or Shahadat” (implementation of Sharia Law or martyrdom) is the new slogan. The black flags of ISIS which shocked with their appearance in the Valley a few years ago are no longer a huge anomaly. Originally, the ISIS flags were dismissed by intel agencies and the administration as misguided youthful exuberance. Then the men carrying them and others wielding guns declared their allegiance to dreaded global terror groups.

Like this:

Here is a sample of what is being preached in some mosques these days.

From a recent sermon in Sydney, Australia:

“This nation [Muslims] should know that it was […] created to spread Allah’s religion and lead the nations, and this could only be achieved by Jihad for the sake of Allah!”

These words were not said somewhere in the war ravaged Middle East by a supporter of ISIS or other extremist groups. They were not whispered in a dark room, hidden from public sight. This call for holy war, or jihad, was voiced loud and clear to a large crowd in a Sydney mosque just a few months ago.

For anyone concerned about the threat from jihad there are a few web resources of which readers may or may not be aware and which we consider required reading on a regular basis to stay informed of the threats.

Robert Spencer is not just a national treasure, he is a true hero of Western Civilization. For years he has been writing and saying the things that need to be said, that few others have been courageous enough to write and say. As a result, he has been on the receiving end of unwarranted criticism and outright attacks, primarily from the global Jihadist movement, the politically correct Left and our corrupt, so-called “mainstream” news media.

You should visit Jihad Watch daily and you will also want to sign up for their daily email bulletin.

John Guandolo is another American hero. John has gone toe to toe with Jihadis, both as a US Marine officer and a special agent in the FBI. When you hear about former Attorney General Eric Holder and former FBI director Robert Mueller purging the FBI training materials of any reference to Jihad and Islam, what you’re actually hearing is that they purged the FBI’s training on the global Jihadist movement that John Guandolo created. In fact, Mr. Guandolo was both praised and decorated for his work, until Holder came along and decided he didn’t want it taught anymore. (Mueller dutifully complied, just like a lapdog.)

Today, Mr. Guandolo and his team are dedicated to teaching state and local law enforcement what federal law enforcement is forbidden from learning. He produces terrific videos and has an informative blog as well. Be sure to sign up for his daily e-mail alert when you visit his site.

Dr. Bill Warner has introduced the scientific method to the study of Jihad and Shariah. His groundbreaking work has provided a scholarly perspective in such a way that everyday Americans can readily grasp what heretofore have been mysterious concepts about a foreign belief system.

Warner has a bookstore on his site. His books are short and inexpensive and you should buy every book he has for sale. He breaks down the threat through the prism of the scientific method and also provides a history of shariah and jihad that cannot be obtained anywhere else.

Warner’s YouTube videos are excellent, especially his series on the history of jihad and the civilized world’s response, the crusades.

The United West’s Tom Trento is a Christian scholar that has dedicated his life’s work to defending Western Civilization from shariah and Jihad. Mr. Trento goes to the places where no one else is willing to go to confront our adversaries ask them the questions they don’t want to hear.

The United West’s web site contains a wealth of resources and is frequently updated with news reports to keep the reader on the cutting edge.

My employer, the Center for Security Policy has been playing a leadership role in warning America about the threat from shariah and jihad since well before 9/11. Founded and led by Frank Gaffney, who served under President Ronald Reagan in the Department of Defense, the Center’s mission is to promote peace through strength. In addition to analysis of shariah and jihad, you can find analysis of the Iranian nuclear threat, the North Korean threat, Russia and Communist China, among other topics.

The Center also has a large bookstore and many of the books can be read for free online. Here is just a small sample of the titles that the Center has available:

• Islamist Influence in Hollywood
• HAMAS, CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood
• Modern Islamic Warfare: An Ancient Doctrine Marches On
• Shariah: The Threat to America
• CAIR in HAMAS
• Gateway to Jihad: Tablighi Jamaat
• Jihad! Understanding the Threat of the Islamic State in America
• Ikhwan in America: An Oral History of the Muslim Brotherhood in their Own Words
• See No Shariah: Countering Violent Extremism and the Disarming of America’s First Line of Defense
• The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Jihad on Free Speech
• Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America
• Shariah in American Courts

Here we have a vivid illustration of just how fanatic and committed our enemies in the global Jihadist insurgency can be.

This incident also speaks to the need for a terrorist registry in America modeled after the successful sex offender registry.

A jihadi named Fazliddin Kurbanov serving a 25-year prison sentence for a terrorist plot, tried to murder the warden of the federal prison in which he has been incarcerated.

The warden was severely wounded but, fortunately, is expected to make a full recovery.

Kurbanov was previously sentenced to 25 years in prison by a federal judge in Idaho for conspiracy to provide material support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and and for procuring bomb-making materials to execute a terrorist attack on American soil.

The silver lining in the latest unfortunate event is that, when he is convicted of attempted murder, Kurbanov will be sentenced to another 15 years in prison to be served consecutively. That likely means that Kurbanov will die in prison, which is what should have happened in the first place.

But let’s take a moment to examine the original sentence. Think about this for a moment:

A man in post-9/11 America was tried and convicted of conspiracy to support a designated foreign terrorist organization AND for procuring bomb-making materials to carry out a terrorist attack here in the U.S.

One would think that for such crimes, Kurbanov would be sentenced to life behind bars, but, what most Americans don’t realize, sentences for terrorism offenses are actually ridiculously short. So, Kurbanov was sentenced to a quarter-century in prison. He was 33 years old at the time of sentencing.

So, IF Kurbanov served the entire 25 years, he would be 58 years old upon release.

If, after 25 years in prison, Kurbanov had mellowed, perhaps he would not be a danger to society.

But would he have mellowed? What if he had been able to associate with other like-minded individuals while in prison, other jihadis? What if he had continued to study the doctrine that led to his involvement in jihad in the first place? At 58 years old, he certainly could pose a threat to society.

Now, here’s the other aspect of this that few talk about…few federal prisoners ever serve their full sentence. Fazliddin Kurbanov would likely have been released from prison well before he turned 58…had he not tried to slit the throat of a federal prison warden.

Ask yourself a question: if a man like Fazliddin Kurbanov, upon release from prison, moved into your county, wouldn’t you like your local sheriff to know about it?

We have long reported on TerrorTrendsBulletin about two theaters in the global Jihadist insurgency that have gone largely ignored: Thailand and the Philippines.

The Philippines in particular have become one of the central theaters in this world war with both Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates active with violent attacks.

There is also know shortage of local jihadist groups as well. One of those was responsible for the latest attack on the Philippines…

Islamic militants bombed an Army detachment in Shariff Aguak town Friday night, wounding a soldier on duty and a bystander.

Senior Superintendent Agustin Tello of the Maguindanao provincial police said Saturday blast victims Kamarudin Malang and Corporal Ebrahim Meto of the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion are now confined in a hospital.

Local officials have pointed to the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters as responsible for the attack.